Published as another low-cost downloadable title by EastAsiaSoft, Legend of Cyber Cowboy is a roguelite trying to be a Smash T.V. clone wrapped around a desert cowboy theme. Overall, its heart is in the right place, but the lack of variety and balance issues drastically holds back the fun factor.
Playing as a cybernetic cowboy, it is your job to kill anything that moves using twin-stick controls. Each stage is one large, interconnected area, just like Smash T.V., only without a map or radar so keeping track of where to go and where you have been is disorienting at best. The biggest problem, though, comes from being horribly underpowered by default. The starting peashooter simply doesn’t shoot fast enough or deal enough damage. Meaning, the common enemy, and especially bosses, take way too many hits. There are no permanent upgrades either, forcing the player to start from scratch with each death. Only by luck and tenacity was I able to beat to the beat the level 1 boss, only to get quickly smoked at the beginning of stage two.
Success comes from being lucky enough to find the gun dealer early in the run. However, you’ll need a good amount of cash to hopefully buy that one gun with the increased attack power. Just remember, it has limited ammo and each bullet will need to be saved for the boss.
In addition to the difficulty being unbalanced, the stage design also requires the player to “cheat.” You see, each stage has one health and ammo restoration room. Meaning, the player will need to clear a path to the boss room, then walk all the way back to restore lost health before fighting the boss of each area. It is tedious at best and doesn’t also work out because it is common to be overwhelmed by a room full of enemies that take too many hits. Entering a boss room without a full bar of health is practically suicide because each one fills the screen with bullets that are impossible to dodge.
I was fooled by the gameplay trailer of Legend of Cyber Cowboy. It looked like a fun, twin-stick shooter but is an unfair and highly frustrating action game that doesn’t respect the player. However, this is one of those games where you can see the potential, it just faltered by being undercooked. Maybe one day we will get a sequel that fixes these game breaking issues.
Not As Good As: Westlid’s Law
Makes Me Want: an auto single stick shooter like Vampire Survivors
Wait For It: a Smash TV revival
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
X/Twitter: @ZackGaz
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RATING
OUR SCORE - 3
3
SCORE
A twin-stick roguelike that is trying to be like Smash TV but stumbles with horrible balancing issues.
Editor in Chief - been writing for mygamer,com for 20+ years. Gaming enthusiast. Hater of pants. Publisher of obscure gaming content on my YT channel.
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